While airlines have for years made grand promises of personalization and customization through inflight entertainment, many implementations fall well short of passenger expectations. New York-based JetBlue is hoping its latest enhancement, dubbed Blueprint by JetBlue, delivers on those expectations.
Content suggestions and favoriting is nothing new, but those features are typically locked to a single flight and the data is wiped after each session. This leaves little or no data to actually drive the recommendation engines outside of what a passenger watched in that moment.
Across its Airbus A320, A321neo and A220 fleets equipped with the Thales AVANT IFE system, passengers will now receive content recommendations based on their viewing habits across all prior flights.
Blueprint will also allow passengers to resume viewing content from where they left off on a prior flight, supporting content carry over. Settings such as volume, closed caption preferences, and parental controls will also move along with passengers. Those finding themselves on one of the few remaining E190, A320 or A321 jets with JetBlue’s legacy LiveTV 4 system will miss out on these capabilities.
Rounding out the new features is the ability for up to six passengers to sync their screens and view the same content as a “watch party”. JetBlue claims that this is the highest number of passengers able to use this functionality across any airline currently offering this feature. (I recently tried Air Canada’s version, which allows up to four viewers to watch, on a Boeing 787 flight.)
After receiving some unexpected attention when passengers complained about having their name displayed on seatback screens as a greeting, JetBlue is now also allowing passengers to customize their displayed name. It’s a more sensible approach to personalization.
Passengers are required to log-in to the IFE system with their last name and birthday to view their recommendations. But JetBlue promises that none of the personal data it collects will be shared or used for other purposes.
“By launching Blueprint by JetBlue, we are doubling down on our commitment to help customers create an inflight experience tailored to their needs and preferences, making their flight as comfortable as their own living rooms,” says Jayne O’Brien, head of marketing and customer support, JetBlue.
The carrier also notes that it is “the only airline that greets customers with confetti graphics and a complimentary drink (21+) when flying on their birthday”.
Ironically, however, JetBlue still does not offer Bluetooth audio capabilities on any of its aircraft, including those with Blueprint.
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Featured image credited to JetBlue
